US and Ukraine will sign defence cooperation agreement

On Wednesday 21 June, after his visit to the White House, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that Ukraine and the United States agreed on providing weapons for defence purposes and an agreement was reached to extend cooperation on defence.

This agreement will allow the provision of lethal weapons in the future, which was previously refused by Obama's garniture. Over the next two or three months, the agreement should be finished and the U.S. delegation should come to Kyiv for its official signing. Since the beginning of the conflict in Donbass, the United States has already been providing Ukraine with non-lethal weapons such as radars, communication technologies and armoured vehicles, but extended defence cooperation would allow Ukraine to get more advanced technologies such as missile guidance systems or special forms of software. The Ukrainian Army, according to its leaders, mainly needs guidance systems and elements of anti-tank and air defence. The Ukrainian government is now using a period without greater escalations in the East to modernise its military equipment. During 2017 the government should spend about $333 million on new equipment, with the Czech Republic also being among its suppliers.